Recently on Shabbat, I devoted most of the drash to sharing the entire message of one of my favorite teachers and commentators, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain. His words are timely, both, in terms of preparing to receive the Torah on Shavuot and in addressing a plague that infests society and from which we even at B’nai Israel are not immune: Lashon HaRa, Bad Talk. I am sharing here an abridged version of his drash. Note that spelling “errors” are actually indicative of language differences between British and American usages of English. I intend to also send along to the email distribution list the unabridged version of this piece, as every sentence is worth savoring.

The Power of Praise by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks re: Lashon HaRa/Bad Talk

From time to time couples come to see me before their wedding. Sometimes they ask me whether I have any advice to give them as to how to make their marriage strong. In reply I give them a simple suggestion. It is almost magical in its effects. It will make their relationship strong and in other unexpected ways it will transform their lives.

They have to commit themselves to the following ritual. Once a day, usually at the end of the day, they must each praise the other for something the other has done that day, no matter how small: an act, a word, a gesture that was kind or sensitive or generous or thoughtful. The praise must be focussed on that one act, not generalised. It must be genuine: it must come from the heart. And the other must learn to accept the praise.That is all they have to do. It takes at most a minute or two. But it has to be done, not sometimes, but every day.

I learned this in a most unexpected way.Lena Rustin, one of the most remarkable people I have ever met, was a speech therapist specialising in helping stammering children. Most speech therapists focus on speaking and breathing techniques, and on the individual child. Lena did more. She focused on relationships, and worked with parents, not just children.

Her view was that to cure a stammer, she had to do more than help the child to speak fluently. She had to change the entire family environment. Families tend to create an equilibrium. If a child stammers, everyone in the family adjusts to it. Therefore if the child is to lose its stammer, all the relationships within the family will have to be renegotiated. Not only must the child change. So must everyone else.

But change at that basic level is hard. We tend to settle into patterns of behaviour until they become comfortable like a well-worn armchair. How do you create an atmosphere within a family that encourages change and makes it unthreatening? The answer, Lena discovered, was praise. She told the families with which she was working that every day they must catch each member of the family doing something right, and say so, specifically, positively and sincerely. Every member of the family, but especially the parents, had to learn to give and receive praise.

Watching her at work I began to realise that she was creating, within each home, an atmosphere of mutual respect and continuous positive reinforcement. She believed that this would generate self-confidence not just for the stammering child but for all members of the family. The result would be an environment in which people felt safe to change and to help others do so likewise.

I filmed Lena's work for a documentary I made for BBC television on the state of the family in Britain. I also interviewed some of the parents whose children she had worked with. When I asked them whether Lena had helped their child, not only did each of them say 'Yes' but they went on to say that she had helped save their marriage. This was extraordinary. She was, after all, not a marriage guidance counselor but a speech therapist. Yet so powerful was this one simple ritual that it had massive beneficial side effects, one of which was to transform the relationship between husbands and wives.

I mention this for two reasons, one obvious, the other less so. The obvious reason is that the sages were puzzled about the major theme of Tazria-Metzora, the skin disease known as tsaraat. Why, they wondered, should the Torah focus at such length on such a condition? It is, after all, not a book of medicine, but of law, morality and spirituality.

The answer they gave was that tsaraat was a punishment for lashon hara: evil, hateful or derogatory speech. They cited the case of Miriam who spoke negatively about her brother Moses and was struck by tsaraat for seven days (Num. 12). They also pointed to the incident when at the burning bush Moses spoke negatively about the Israelites and his hand was briefly affected by tsaraat (Ex. 4:1-7).The sages spoke more dramatically about lashon hara than any other offence. They said that it was as bad as committing all three cardinal sins: idolatry, incest and murder. They said that it kills three people: the one who says it, the one he says it about and the one who listens to it.

So far, so clear. Don't gossip (Lev. 19:16). Don't slander. Don't speak badly about people. Judaism has a rigorous and detailed ethics of speech because it believes that "Life and death are in the power of the tongue" (Prov. 18:21). Judaism is a religion of the ear more than the eye; of words rather than images. God created the natural world with words and we create or damage the social world with words. We do not say, "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me." To the contrary, words can cause emotional injuries that are as painful as physical ones, perhaps more so.

So Lena Rustin's rule of praise is the opposite of lashon hara. It is lashon hatov: good, positive, encouraging speech. According to Maimonides, to speak in praise of people is part of the command to "love your neighbor as yourself." That is straightforward.But at a deeper level, there is a reason why it is hard to cure people of lashon hara, and harder still to cure them of gossip in general. The American sociologist Samuel Heilman wrote an incisive book, Synagogue Life, about a Modern Orthodox congregation of which, for some years, he was a member. He devotes an entire lengthy chapter to synagogue gossip. Giving and receiving gossip, he says, is more or less constitutive of being part of the community. Not gossiping defines you as an outsider.

Now, not only Heilman but probably every adult member of the community knew full well that gossip is biblically forbidden and that negative speech, lashon hara, is among the gravest of all sins. They also knew the damage caused by someone who gives more gossip than he or she receives.Synagogue Life was published 20 years before Oxford anthropologist Robin Dunbar's famous book, Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language. Dunbar's argument is that, in nature, groups are held together by devoting a considerable amount of time to building relationships and alliances. Non-human primates do this by "grooming," stroking and cleaning one another's skin (hence the expression, "If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours"). But this is very time-consuming and puts a limit on the size of the group.

Humans developed language as a more effective form of grooming. The specific form of language that bonds a group together, says Dunbar, is gossip - because this is the way members of the group can learn who to trust and who not to. So gossip is not one form of speech among others. According to Dunbar, it is the most primal of all uses of speech.If this is so, it explains why the prohibitions against gossip and lashon hara are so often honoured in the breach, not the observance. So common is lashon hara that one of the giants of modern Jewry, R. Yisrael Meir ha-Cohen (the Chofetz Chaim) devoted much of his life to combatting it. Yet it persists, as anyone who has ever been part of a human group knows from personal experience. You can know it is wrong, yet you and others do it anyway.

This is why I found Lena Rustin's work to have such profound spiritual implications. Her work had nothing to do with gossip, but without intending to she had discovered one of the most powerful antidotes to lashon hara ever invented. She taught people to develop the habit of speaking well of one another. She taught them to praise, daily, specifically and sincerely. Anyone who uses Lena's technique for a prolonged period will be cured of lashon hara. It is the most effective antidote I know.Evil speech destroys relationships. Good speech mends them. This works not only in marriages and families, but also in communities, organisations and businesses. So: in any relationship that matters to you, deliver praise daily. Seeing and praising the good in people makes them better people, makes you a better person, and strengthens the bond between you. This really is a life-changing idea.

As we enter the month of April, the Jewish holiday cycle is moving us through the holiday of Passover which we will conclude with a service on the first Shabbat of the month (the 7th). For many, Passover is their favorite or most observed holiday (along with the Days of Awe). As many know, however, Passover is in partnership with another holiday, 50 days later (as the count up begins at the second night Seder): Shavuot, the festival of the “Giving of the Torah”.

Not only do these two holidays connect in acknowledgment that physical freedom, Passover’s focus, is not enough, in that freedom is vouchsafed by governance assuring such freedom, Shavuot’s focus. Of possibly greater significance is that each holiday connects us to the relationship of the two names by which we are identified as a people: Jew and Am Yisrael, the People of Israel.

Passover’s orientation is the miraculous survival of our people from hundreds of years of enslavement in Egypt. The Seder celebrates our having made it out of there safely and commemorates that transformation with our feast of freedom and gratitude for that amazing accomplishment.

None of that would have happened according to tradition had not a particular individual at the Sea of Reeds, where it appeared as if our escape would be doomed by the water blocking our passage to safety, stepped into the sea, up to his nostrils, before it opened, allowing our safe passage. Of all the leaders of the tribes that could have been that courageous individual to show the way, it was none other than Nachshon ben Aminadav, of the tribe of Judah that did so.

How amazing and appropriate that it was Nachshon that did so, in that the tribe of Judah would not only become our namesake throughout the ages, Jew, but in essence it would reflect the key to our continuity: the ability to survive reflected in gratitude for just that.

Throughout the ages we have been identified as Jews, those who are thankful for each day and each blessing in life. Regardless of pressures with which we live in a world fraught with danger and precariousness, we have never lost our “fall back” position of gratitude for life. The word Jew means “thankfulness” and it first emerges, metaphorically, with Nachshon risking his life to walk into the water, to show the way to survival. It becomes connected with our beginning as a people with the Passover Seder, reminding us to never forget the miraculousness of our survival and the freedom from oppression we celebrate during this holiday.

Yet, survival is not enough. We need purpose, meaning and infrastructure to allow our continuity to thrive and enable us to appreciate and understand why we survive. That is reflected in the 50 day count up to the holiday of Shavuot, as we are given the Torah, by which to live with purpose and with this understanding: God created us not just to be thankful, when so many conditions are conducive to doubting a secure future. God created us to be active and empowered partners to transform the world into a realm where life is once again secure and filled with blessings that abound. God gives us the mandate to reflect such partnership by creating a world that respects and includes different ways of living and honoring varieties of relationship between human beings and how they uniquely serve God.

Shavuot and the gift of Torah enable us to embrace our deeper identity as interactive and dynamic partners with God, i.e. “Israel”, “affective wrestling partners with God”. In embracing Torah as our guideline and infrastructure by which to live, we introduce the world to the commitment to each becoming secure enough in one’s own identity so as to be capable, open and inclined to listen to, learn from and engage one another in the bigger picture and purpose of bringing Shalom into the world.

Survival, necessary as it is, is not enough. We need the purpose associated with survival to use our God given gifts (Torah and all the attributes with which each person and people is blessed) to make this a Godly world; that means a home for all God’s creation and one that sees diversity as a blessing and not a threat.

Such teaching is increasingly important to observe and honor in a world whose survival seems increasingly threatened.

Metaphorically, if not for other more tangible reasons, it is good and wise for us as Jews to move beyond the survival theme of freedom from slavery, commemorated and celebrated by Passover and the Seders, to honor and focus on the lesser observed holiday of Shavuot, our gateway to the dynamics of partnership that will energize us to repair the world. We will celebrate this holiday in the third week of May including our visit to Diamond Creek Vineyard, joining our friends from Beth Sholom Napa for a day of rejoicing and celebration on Sunday, May 20.

I look forward to honoring our identities as Jews and as Israel as we move from Passover to Shavuot together and appreciate how ALL our holidays contribute to who we are as a unique and significant people, reminding ourselves and the world that the purpose of Life is to move beyond survival to dynamic partnership.

One of my favorite times of the week to which parents are always invited is the Sunday morning informal service with the kids. Part of the experience is exploring what the prayers mean and how they apply in our lives. As the children participate in the discussion, their insights are often fresh and inspiring. They see things adults often do not. I will never forget a comment I heard many years ago from a child responding to why it is the custom for a right-handed person to wrap tefillin, (the special straps and boxes containing core prayers that are wrapped around the arm and head for a daily traditional service) on the left arm and for a left handed person to do so on the right arm. The insight shared was simple but one I had never heard, and made the most sense! The child said, “You wrap the tefillin around the opposite arm to add strength to the weaker arm”, i.e. spiritual strength! As we meet on these Sunday mornings to explore life meaning, CBI children add delight to the experience with their enthusiasm and participation.

One important premise in Judaism is that what enriches spiritual life is in bringing childlike qualities to the process: to see each moment, as many times as you may have seen it, as a first time, which is what it is, and is more likely the case for a child who has experienced less in life. As “children” of God, all of us are mandated to approach life with childlike wonder, and do what we can to generate trust in our relationships, a quality that comes naturally to children (even as we unfortunately have to teach them to not always trust, given this world we live in!).

In my earlier years at Kol Shofar, I recall that one of the families most integrally involved in programming and leadership came initially to the synagogue because their two young girls requested that they learn about being Jewish. The children literally led that family into Jewish life; to the parents’ credit, they always acknowledged that their involvement and commitment to the synagogue was thanks to their children’s push in that direction.

So, fortuitously, as I write these words, our country seems to be headed, after countless failed attempts, in a direction of sanity in addressing the proliferation of weapons that have made us the nation with the most gun violence in the world. That is in thanks to the children of Parkland who have left “school business as usual” behind to call the adults out for not having taken steps to assure the safety of children in American schools. And, unlike adults who follow their rules of engagement and excuse making and other patterns that have left each violent act with the response of “heartful thoughts and prayers”, these young people are leaving childhood behind to become involved in the process of awakening the nation to this unacceptable behavior that has allowed our places of gathering to become increasingly at risk.

Schools, churches, synagogues, malls and entertainment venues should be sanctuaries and gathering places where people can non-self-consciously live their lives in safety and satisfaction. That is no longer the case as all participants in CBI have become increasingly aware with the added necessary security measures we have taken to protect members and attendees.

It is “telling” that our tradition teaches that God gave us the Torah for the sake of and on the warranty of our children. On one hand the message has been to remind us that what we learn and how we practice our teachings is with the purpose of raising a next generation of healthy members and leaders of society. On the other hand, the teaching also implies respect for that upcoming generation, that with the tools we provide they can be assured of becoming wise leaders and providing inspiration to the elders; a society’s greatest strength is manifest in the interchange of lessons and values between multiple generations.

As it turns out, the adults at this time have become mired in politics and power games that have left us all vulnerable and particularly so for our children and teachers in schools. Judaism inherently respects the participation of people as young as 13 given that being the age of “adulthood” as symbolized by the bat/bar mitzvah celebration.

The Passover Seder is predicated on an interchange between adults and children with the kids leading off the discussion with the recitation of the 4 Questions. What makes the Seder meaningful and fruitful is in the degree that elders and youth are respected and made comfortable with feelings of being included in the conversation. Together, they are encouraged to explore values of freedom and the development of a society born out of the Exodus from enslavement to hurtful behavior generated by adults abusing their powers.

Hopefully this time progress will be made in dealing with safety from guns in our society. My optimism, and that of so many adults, is grounded in appreciation that for the first time in the conversation, some of the most passionate and vocal leaders, our youth, people who will not accept the status quo nor be silenced by thoughts and prayers, are now part of the process. However adults treat one another, they have to be careful with how they respond to the “innocence of youth”, whose innocence has been stolen from them, with the necessity of their becoming the adult in the room, given that their parents’ generation has allowed so much destructiveness to rob them of their childhood.

The last time young people forced the adult world to rethink its behavior happened so long ago that the youngsters of that era are now senior citizens, reminded of their stepping up, so many years ago, to the wrongs of a war lacking meaning or justification, that was only ended after the kids put themselves on the line.

May this generation of youngsters grow in strength as they show the way for the rest of us in these troubled times.

It is fascinating, if not annoying, how American celebrated holidays are so often overshadowed (or is it over-marketed!) by commercialization.

The joke about Halloween is that it is the launch of marketing for Christmas, except that marketing for Halloween seems to begin before summer is over. If, anything, the most shared holiday for all Americans, Thanksgiving, is “turkey sandwiched” between the formerly children’s (now reclaimed seemingly by the adults!) holiday and the end of the year festivities. Too bad for Thanksgiving, since it is arguably our most unifying of all holidays in American culture, until and unless MLK Day becomes more universally observed as a day to commemorate values of honoring and celebrating respect for all Americans with all our differences.

This month of February is home to two holidays: one that has been hyped by the marketers since before we hit New Year’s Day with all the candy wrapped in pink. While many American holidays have their counterparts with Jewish holidays i.e. Sukkot, our Jewish Thanksgiving, there isn’t a Jewish version of Valentine’s Day, unless you stretch the meaning to figure that Shavuot, the Time of the Giving of Torah is that alternative. Our tradition associates God’s Love with HaShem’s gift of Torah, which is commemorated in our daily and Shabbat prayer that leads into the Shema, which in turn opens us to returning that Love to God, the Veahavta. In Judaism, love is more than feelings accompanied by hearts, flowers and an abundance of candy (I confess I love buying the latter at the deepest of discounts a day or two after each of the seasonal holidays ends i.e. with stores needing to rid themselves of those Reese’s peanut butter trees; they still taste the same!). “Love” in Judaism is a product of accepting Torah, in that it is reflective much more of action and interaction than expressions of feelings.

Consider the word “love” in Hebrew: it is three fourths God in its spelling. Ahava is spelled “Aleph”, “Heh”, “Bet”, “Heh”. The only non-God letter of the three (with Heh repeated) is the “Bet”, which happens to be, as the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the one that associates specifically with the human being. God is number 1; we are number 2. The visual of “love” in Hebrew is how human and Divine interact, reflected by how we treat each other and interact with one another, looking for opportunities to do Mitzvot, caring actions that make life better, kinder and sweeter for one another. Love is what you do, with hopefully feelings that match your actions of kindness and caring.

One of the paradoxes which I am not sure how to think of in terms of that other holiday I alluded to at the top of my reflections is that the joy of Purim (which we will celebrate on the last evening of February at 6:30 PM followed by our party) is a response to hate. The paradox is that while we automatically think of hate being the opposite of love, it is not. Indifference is the opposite of love. Love and hate are cut from similar cloth. When the inclinations for good and bad, the yetzer tov and yetzer ra are in partnership and balance with each other then we turn the idea of love into a reality with the passion (associated with yetzer ra) making the love palpable and operational. When the yetzer ra is not harnessed by and channeled through the yetzer tov, then the selfishness that prevails easily can transform into hatred for someone else.

Whichever holidays are your favorites, one difference between secular and Jewish holidays, other than Hamentashen not deeply discounted the day after Purim, (though I’ve noticed, seemingly available year round, if you know where to look!) is that the secular ones seem to get lost and mired in the commercialism, with their content unfortunately muted, (and in the case of Christmas, a religious holiday rendered for many/ most as secular). In contrast, our Jewish holidays always give pause for reflection and action, i.e. Mitzvah becoming an expression of Love for life and for all God’s creation. We Jews are fortunate to have lots of depth and meaning to enhance our holidays. All we have to do is to embrace them, observe them and live with them!

As the song goes, “what the world needs NOW is Love, sweet Love!” Jewishly speaking that means stepping up to embrace Mitzvah, responsibility to act in ways that will enable people of all backgrounds in our country to be safe and to assure that America is home to values of caring, kindness, compassion and justice…for ALL. That is the news we all need to bring to reality, as abiding truth!

As we move forward into 2018, so many unknowns loom before us as our country and world head into seemingly uncharted territory in governance and behavior. In facing these challenging times, B’nai Israel, representing Jewish values and continuity, provides for us the kind of context Judaism has been committed to throughout the ages: an oasis from the stresses and tensions of life, and perspective on principles that matter, i.e. caring, compassion, commitment to truth, fairness, provision for the needs of the most vulnerable and so many more, seemingly neglected and rejected in decisions and behavior we see and read about in the Media.

As CBI continues its mission as a caring community committed to learning and teaching Judaic principles that promote wellbeing for all participants in society, an important factor for all of us to face is that Jewish community continuity is grounded in and contingent on its members accepting and honoring the principle of dor l’dor, “generation to generation”; the children learning from their parents become, literally or metaphorically, the parents that teach the next generation of children…and we continue and grow accordingly.

For CBI in appreciating the gifts of the generation passing the baton, we do well to consider losses we have sustained that must be replaced as the next generation steps up. One rewarding transition to watch and be energized by is how Mary Schwartz, our long time leader in all capacities of our children’s education, over the years, has helped guide our new generation of youth education leadership led by Amy Lerner. The enthusiasm in the process of this new emergent leadership is palpable and energizing for all of us.

We are looking to expand our lay leadership now in the capable hands of Linda Chene on Friday evenings and Martin Gewing on Saturday mornings to include those already attending these services and others not yet regulars on Shabbat but who could become involved even to the point of sharing in service leadership. Anyone can “do it” given the availability of recordings and instruction that I have made of our services…good for learning to lead as well as to use as a means to learn more about the service and to feel at home in singing along.

The importance of generation to generation became very tangible this past year with the losses of some people that were keys to our community in various ways: Don Bond’s passing was palpably noticed when we fell short of a minyan on Shavuot when we gathered for Yizkor. Don never missed a holiday service and had he been alive we would have had the minyan that morning. We will miss his leadership on the board and on a variety of committees. I valued him as an elder that was forward thinking and open to change which is typically challenging for older folks.

Shabbat morning took two hits in the last months with the sudden passing of Marty Weissman and recently Janice Reek. Marty always added flavor to the minyan, particularly for me, with his penetrating challenges to various subject areas of the weekly Torah portion. Janice always provided the most amazing and unique baked treats that she concocted for the Kiddush. She never baked anything more than once and each was a taste treat that reminded you how special Shabbat is. It occurred to me we could double attendance just by reminding folks that we always enjoy a scrumptious Kiddush thanks to the delicious and varied noshes that folks bring to enjoy after the service. Myra Binstock, after we lost Janice, to whom she always gave a ride, began to honor her by baking the kinds of goodies she was known for. When you think of Syd Nazarenko you think of her delectable stuffed eggs. When you think of Martin Gewing, you think of his wonderful tuna salad. Janice evokes this appreciation of Gastronomic Judaism, and we miss her dearly at the Kiddush.

And, this month we will be remembering and celebrating Beryl Cohen who was another force for so much good in the programming and activity of CBI over the years.

News of the rather sudden passing of Lionel Jacobs this last month has jarred a number of us who know how much he did over the years in leadership of CBI. Every time I look at the floor in the social hall, particularly when something falls on it, I think of Lionel who spearheaded the project for constructing it, along with the refurbishing of the chairs in the sanctuary, and so much more in terms of CBI infrastructure (by the way, he did not care for identifying B’nai Israel by its initials, and I always keep his preference in mind each time I nevertheless use the initials!). Lionel’s death reminds us that we have also lost folks to moves elsewhere.

The challenge is not to replace our losses, for each is uniquely irreplaceable, but for newly interested and previously dormant folks to step forward and share their unique interests and passion while augmenting the numbers, i.e. with the Shabbat minyan, that we need, to assure our community’s continuity.

I am so grateful to our co-presidents, Jan Leventhal and Marc North for their own unique care for the safety, wellbeing and dynamic programming under their leadership. They cannot do it without the strong support of the board, and the board in turn needs broader participation to allow us to grow in strength and activity.

These needs to fill are not just good ideas for people to consider; they are at the heart of Jewish identity and purpose, in guaranteeing the fulfillment of dor l’dor, “generation to generation” and perhaps more significantly, this particular year and beyond, to provide a safe and nurturing oasis to enable us all to help each other weather the varying storms that seem to be stirring in so many ways, whether from Nature, or from human activity gone sideways, from the perspective of Judaism and its commitment to honor God by the way we treat God’s creation.

I look forward to your stepping up and forward in doing your part to assure our vibrancy this year and beyond, and I wish you all a happy, healthy and safe New Year 2018.

From Thanksgiving through the end of the year we find ourselves immersed in the holiday season.

What part of it works for you? Is it real? Is it commercial hype? Is there a spirit of giving and caring that gives you hope?

And what about the theme of light that prevails in the various holidays celebrated in December? Is it glitter or is there some gold in their glow?

Chanukah offers a broad range of possibilities for how to access and engage the holiday season. With its proximity to Christmas, and their sharing the theme of light, Chanukah appears to be popular due to its commercialization as a gift giving counterpart to Christmas. Yet, more than any other Jewish holiday Chanukah accentuates the importance of pride in identity and strength of character through its vital message: live your Jewish values and traditions while respecting other religious traditions that share the light of justice and kindness and caring.

The light of Chanukah reflects the miraculous presence of God being with us in the ways we confront and overcome obstacles and difficult times. The Prophet we read during Chanukah, Zachariah sums it up: Not by brute force, nor by strength, but rather by My (God’s) Spirit.

While the light of the Menorah celebrates a miracle of oil, the larger miracle of Chanukah was and is the survival and continuity of a people, small in numbers, yet large in the glow of the light of God’s spirit and Presence. This Divine Light celebrates our staying alive and focused regardless of darkness that has inundated us through the ages, and particularly in our times.

Today we face the kinds of dangers the Chanukah story addresses: the threat of our people disappearing through assimilation, which was the case for half the population in the days of the Maccabees. Our heroes fought two foes: one, the Syrian branch of the Greek empire that was determined to extinguish the light of Judaism, and, two, the many Jews who were willing, if not eager, to disappear into the world of Greek culture. Assimilation today remains a critical threat, as are the modern enemies of Israel that threaten the Jewish state with destruction.

Yet another enemy we face, as do the other traditions that teach caring, kindness and respect for human rights and differences is the attack on truth and the diminishing of character of an America built on biblical principles of celebrating that all human beings are created in God’s Image and to be treated as such.

As in days of old, we need the light of Chanukah, even as its glow reflects us as that light. Every time we gather…to pray, to sing, to eat, to schmooze, to enjoy each other’s company … we keep the light burning bright. We need to harness the courage of the Maccabees to stand up to wrongful behavior and any diminishing of respect for human rights wherever that occurs, whether in the halls of government or in the actions of celebrities and those in authority who use their power to intimidate, dominate and violate those less powerful.

The miracle of Chanukah and its defining light serves to pinch us, even shake us, as the Shofar does on Rosh Hashanah, to remember how fortunate we are to be on life’s stage and that we not squander our blessings. Instead, we are to use them to bring more light into this world and to do our part to turn what can seem like overwhelming darkness in the direction of the Light and Blessing of Shalom.

I look forward to our gathering at CBI to share in the lighting of the candles and the singing of songs for the sixth night of Chanukah on Sunday, December 17, as we renew ourselves in the light of this holiday of “rededication” which is the meaning of “Chanukah”.

What a tumultuous start to 5778, the New Year as reckoned in the Hebrew calendar. How ironic and overwhelming that the fires should begin their deadly transformation of life as we had known it, during the Sukkot holiday. Hearing a survivor on the Monday morning after the fires broke out describing it as Armageddon called to mind the Haftarah we read the Saturday before, for the Shabbat of Sukkot. The prophet Ezekiel prophesizes conflict in the world and in nature that the rabbis reckon as Armageddon. Our tradition associates the depth of such conflict with Sukkot in anticipation of the world coming to its theological, spiritual and ethical “senses”. After all the doubt and despair from the destruction and devastation, what will ultimately prevail is the ushering in of the Age of Shalom.

At the by-monthly meeting of the Napa Men’s Group that met the Tuesday of the second week of the fires, one person said the drive down to the facility, (which narrowly escaped the flames of the Atlas Peak fire) reminded him of his drive down, years earlier, the morning of 9/11 (which was a Tuesday) as he looked forward to the kinds of hugs he remembered that day so many years earlier (the group is now in its 19th year).

I suspect that each of us has been affected by what happened in different kinds of ways. The smoke alone, with its inclusion of dangerous micro-particle toxins, made life unhealthy even for people far away from the fire zone.

The suddenness of the outbreak and the randomness of who was struck even in zones where a house here or there somehow was left mostly intact among entirely lost neighborhoods brings to consciousness how illusory our controls are in areas of life we take for granted, such as the assumption of having a home to return to after a day at school or work.

As I write these words, Anne and Bill Howson and I have just returned from a visit to Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa, a community in which over 30 of its members lost their homes. We brought a check of $1800 (the 18 symbolizes life) from CBI for the synagogue to distribute in addressing the overwhelming needs to help those with limited resources for coping. Volunteers from all over the area have been coming to the synagogue to assist with meals and with provisions for day care and day camp programs for now homeless kids. The camp itself, now in its closing days, as increasingly families locate places to resettle (again with the help of the broader community now offering second homes for long term usage), has been run by volunteers. Even those that haven’t lost homes are so disoriented that the provision of home cooked meals for them is a most welcome offering.

The reality is that this is not an easily solved “problem” and all of us individually, as neighbors, and as communities (i.e. the CBI community) will be needed to heed any and all calls for help and assistance, many yet to be identified. With the passage of time, it is essential we not let this crisis fade or lose our attention. If anything, in the coming months and more, increased efforts will be necessary to continue to do what we can to provide some semblance of normalcy and hope until such a time when this will all become a bad memory.

While Sukkot with its celebration of the harvest of humanity looking out for one another, as a higher priority than acquiring material possessions to enhance enjoyment of life, now becomes its own memory, the message and aftermath of Sukkot, as always, remains with us. This holiday was associated with judgment of how the coming year could unfold specifically in terms of rain, associated with hopefully a bountiful harvest. Jewishly, the message is that regardless of how much or little rain falls this year, what matters is our connections with one another and our commitment to remember that all our resources are gifts from HaShem, the Power of Life. Therefore our responsibility is to share these gifts and apportion them where necessary to assure that all that are vulnerable have their needs addressed and provided for.

This year in particular that message is essential to remind us to stay the course of commitment to be of help where it is needed and do all we can to help those suffering more than we to assure that they regain balance and wellbeing in their lives.

Wherever you found yourself and family in your journey through life before the Days of Awe and its closure with Sukkot, I suspect that, as surely as you had days when you needed to escape the smoke, if you were fortunate enough to not have to also deal directly with fire, your lives and your journey in this realm has changed. One such change hopefully is in the direction of becoming even more conscious and aware that your actions matter and your attention to Tikkun/Repair is needed more than ever to vouchsafe not only your wellbeing, but particularly to improve the conditions of those whose world has changed so dramatically for the worse.

May we all be sources of strength and blessing as we move through this year and these precarious times.

Five days after the conclusion of the Days of Awe, time for reflection on personal, family and world conditions, we celebrate Sukkot. Identified by the sages as “haChag” “the Holiday for Rejoicing”, and “Zman Simchateynu” “Time for our Happiness”, Sukkot generates a world of celebration, fueled by gratitude for all the blessings uncovered during the Days of Awe.

Sukkot helps contextualize what was accomplished during the Days of Awe. With so much that is wrong to address in our world, there is also much to celebrate about life. The harvest is more abundant than we realize, when we limit appreciation to things we own and stature we protect. The message of Sukkot is that the more stuff we have, the more cluttered our lives. The more cluttered our lives, the less we can see those aspects of life that matter more and most.

The rituals associated with Sukkot create perspective for where to place your focus. It starts at home. To better appreciate your dwelling place, you are mandated to build a new home of cut branches of trees. This new home will be temporary, a shack, keeping out neither heat nor cold. Its beauty is of nature itself. Its splendor is in ways you enjoy being with each other within its “walls”.

The Sukkah is a delicious setting for continuing reflection on life’s priorities, a simple and lovely place in which to digest all you have just accomplished in re-evaluating life’s important matters. It is Jewish camping, returning to life’s basics, outside of the confines of luxury and human-created structures and programs of entertainment designed for and conducive to escaping life’s problems and unpleasant realities.

Sukkot serves to remind humanity that its future depends on living in harmony with the land, on living respectfully with the yield of the soil and the vulnerable resources upon which we all depend. By “nature” it is a holiday calling out the danger of Climate Change and misuse of resources.

Shaking the Etrog and Lulav each day except Shabbat reminds us that the world, Jewishly and in all ways, is a community of unique quality, built on and blessed with differences; we are all different and all make a difference in contributing to the richness and character of life. Just as the lowly willow lives in harmony with the majestic palm, so are we to build and grow relationships with people of all backgrounds and protect those vulnerable or less gifted. The Etrog and Lulav are not kosher, not permitted for ritual observance, if any one of the four species is missing.

Five days after Yom Kippur, Sukkot presents more to do, more mitzvot to observe, than any other holiday in the Jewish year. We filled the Days of Awe, concluding with Yom Kippur, the Day of Transformation, with thoughts, feelings and words focused on pondering life, and our place in it, differently. Now comes Sukkot with multiple ways to do differently, culminating with unbridled joy that God gave us a precious teaching by which to absorb and live these values: the Torah and its guidance to live each day doing Mitzvah, living responsibly, connected to one another in our efforts.

Sukkot closes the week of celebration of harvest of people, relationships, and priorities of partnership, in commitment to repair the world, with unbridled joy in dancing with the Torahs and renewing our journey of commitment to learning and relearning life’s core values, by starting the cycle of the Torah from the beginning, with Simchat Torah.

Rereading and retelling the story again, from Creation, is the Jewish way of harnessing the harvest of history, lessons learned, and strategies to utilize, to attempt to turn the failings that have transpired this past year, 2016 and 2017, 5777, into a turn to light, to good, to hope, all in the direction of Shalom.

I look forward to seeing you for our celebrations of Sukkot, Wednesday, October 4 at 6:30 PM, Thursday, October 5 at 10 AM, Shabbat Sukkot Seder, Friday October 6 at 7 PM, Shabbat Sukkot on Saturday, October 7 at 10 AM, and for the close of the holiday with mini Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, Thursday, October 12 at 6:30 PM.

And, I look forward to sharing with you all the programs and activities that await our efforts in making 5778 a year of blessing and wellbeing for our families, our communities and our world.

Many Jews who do not consider themselves observant nevertheless make time to check in on one or more of the High Holy Days (I prefer to identify as the Days of Awe) and or take time to attend a Passover Seder. My sense is that occasional attendees do not look to rituals for connecting Jewishly as much as other areas of identity, i.e. feeling more culturally Jewish or identifying Jewishly in their heart. Statistically fewer than half the Jewish population belongs to synagogues or other Jewish institutions.

For those of you that do take time to attend one or more services during the upcoming Days of Awe, I suggest this year is very different in a number of ways and urge you to plan to be at CBI for even more time than you might have anticipated.

Given conditions in our world at present, the agenda for these days transcends ritual observance. These are times of crisis: national leadership is in a state of seeming paralysis at a point when we need leaders of vision, integrity, caring, compassion and thoughtful decisiveness, none of which characteristics are presently found in the White House and other areas of governance.

The Days of Awe address in detail virtually all the concerns we face these days. It is no coincidence that we are bearers of a story worth recounting at this time: in the story, we are told that the world faces unspeakable doom, with one version positing that flooding is coming to overtake California (remember as of now, it is a “story”…though as of this writing, one that Texas is facing from Hurricane Harvey). So, as people head to their spiritual places for comfort and guidance, in other traditions, the clergy inform their parishioners that they have a week to prepare to meet their Maker and to repent their sins. Jews coming to synagogue for comfort and guidance hear their rabbi say, “Folks, we have one week to learn how to live under water”.

The point of the story is that Judaism, a program that has survived (along with us Jews) when great nations and empires over thousands of years have not, approaches life differently than either other spiritual traditions or nations lacking a blueprint for long term continuity in this realm. While other traditions seek long term grace, i.e. salvation in the next life, if this one is without hope, Judaism’s entire focus is on this world and to make every effort possible (and even seemingly impossible) to enable life to continue in this realm despite all odds.

This focus on making life work in this world, no matter how bad conditions are, is the purpose of the Days of Awe. These services are not about Jewish continuity (that is Passover’s theme) but about continuity of human life on this planet. The shortcomings we address on Yom Kippur cover any and all mistakes, errors, willful misbehavior, and lamentable deeds that human beings and societies make, to the detriment of life in our world.

That alone is reason enough for you to stick with your CBI community throughout these Days of Awe and to follow the “discussion” to be raised in drashot (teachings) and commentaries that I and others are certain to raise. The rituals that may turn some off are actually connectors to addressing matters that affect your life and that of all your dear ones, and the entire world.

A second reason, in support of the first, for making time to be with us throughout these days, is that, in addition to having our precious Max Schleicher joining us once again, with his focus on Torah laning and more, we are also welcoming for the first time my partner of many years when I was at Kol Shofar with his lovely and engaging voice and focus in leadership of a number of the services: Todd Silverstein (whose influence on me some of you will recall when I chant “his” HaYom at the end of Musaf). The voice and leadership of this newly retired chemistry professor from Willamette University adds a wonderful dimension to the energy in the room. In fact, my understanding is that a number of people from Kol Shofar will be joining us this year so as to continue to enjoy being with him…so the energy in the sanctuary will be enhanced and enriched beyond any way I can describe.

And, finally, this is our second year with our new Mahzor Lev Shalem, which unlocks a lot of the meaning and interpretation of what is behind and within the ritual that accompanies us during these days.

Selfishly, with so many guests anticipated this year, I want to make sure there are a goodly number of you CBI members and friends in attendance to match and enrich the enhanced energy anticipated with Todd’s participation.

In other words, a confluence of conditions, not the least of which, are the state of the world and concerns for strategizing future wellbeing during such alarming times, indicate unique importance in our having “all hands on deck”, as we turn to the Days of Awe this year. They will help us negotiate these difficult times. They will comfort, strengthen and empower each of us to find ways to move forward with optimism, hope and renewed energy, to address these alarming times and to work to generate conditions of blessing and goodness for a better future than we seem to face.

This agenda is at the heart of the Days of Awe. It just happens that this year they are far from being a time for a ritual check-in, in order to identify with and sign up for Jewish membership for another year. This year it is more akin to gathering for a “conference” through which to brainstorm a better future for ourselves, our families, our communities and our world, and I am comforted by the thought and knowledge that I will be able to share it with Max, with Todd and with all of you.

I wish you a Shana Tova u’Metuka, a good and sweet new year, 5778, as we all do our utmost to make it so.

Judaism through its calendar of celebrations and focus on doing Mitzvot yields a system for adding life to your years. The ritual observance system is designed to remind us that each day and each moment is unique. As much as our schedules seem to be dominated by repetition, conducive to dulling the senses, resulting in time seeming to go more quickly, the longer we live, Jewish celebration and preoccupation with doing mitzvah enable us to slow things down and appreciate nuances that otherwise would slip by unnoticed.

Judaism’s attention to detail encourages you to distinguish one moment from another and to see life’s preciousness throughout each day, as you presumably become wiser and more appreciative of life’s blessings with each passing year. Judaism’s focus on the details of life in this realm is an antidote to the sense of sameness and repetition that can dull the senses and make it feel as if life is moving ever more quickly as you wonder where the days and years have gone.

The Judaic system’s emphasis on counting blessings and consciously appreciating what goes well in the course of a day, far outweighing what goes wrong, is the mechanism for adding life, i.e. a context for noticing abundant blessings otherwise destined to be overlooked or taken for granted, to your years. Living in this way brings to fruition Shabbat’s purpose to use the Seventh Day to pause and revisit all, or as much as you can, that transpired in the week that ended, as a means to see how rich and full life becomes in pausing that way.

As much as we are blessed with such a system designed to make our years more precious, studies continue to emerge that belonging to such a community, i.e. choosing to attend on some kind of regular basis synagogue or church or mosque, adds years to your life. Science Daily in June had this headline: People who attend services at a church, synagogue or mosque are less stressed and live longer, according to new research from Vanderbilt University."Sometimes in health science we tend to look at those things that are always negative and say, 'Don't do this. Don't do that,'" said Marino Bruce, a social and behavioral scientist and associate director of the Center for Research on Men's Health at Vanderbilt and an ordained Baptist minister.The new research findings, however, are "encouraging individuals to participate in something," he said.According to the study, middle-aged (ages 40 to 65) adults -- both men and women -- who attend church or other house of worship reduce their risk for mortality by 55 percent.While the studies do not tout one particular religious approach as better than another, the Jewish way of life, unlike the others, is particularly community-focused and based, and thereby, it would make sense that if attending any spiritual program is beneficial to one’s longevity, participation in Jewish life is especially conducive to adding years to life.

I am reminded of a wonderful book published years ago on life in the European Shtetl, rural zones where Jews had self-contained governance midst an exclusively Jewish population (think Anatevka of Fiddler on the Roof); the book was appropriately named Life is with People and presented a nostalgic look at the best of life in such typically harsh conditions. The message in that book is that no matter how difficult life may be, it is easier when you are not alone and can share both the burdens and the joys with others, as well as the strength that comes of sharing values of caring and responsibility.

As you go through the quieter time of year, at least in the Jewish calendar, seemingly reflective of the nature of summer in contrast to the other seasons, ask yourself how you could enrich both your life and your years by choosing to share more time in your community.

With B’nai Israel preparing for the upcoming year, reflective of new energy and levels of participation from newer people coming on board, consider the opportunity to add life to your years, and years to your life by elevating your commitment and dedicating yourself to increased involvement in this special community of people that choose to make CBI their extended family home.